Editing Persian column (section)

==Use and influence==
[[File:Mathura lion capital, Asia, G33 South Asia.jpg|thumb|The [[Indo-Scythian]] [[Mathura lion capital]], 0-10 CE]]
The full form of Persian column seems only to have been used at a few sites outside Persia around the empire in the Achaemenid period, in [[Armenia]] and even Levantine colonies in [[Iberia]].<ref name="Boardman 15">Boardman, 15</ref>  The columns influenced the [[Pillars of Ashoka]] erected in India some 80 years after [[Alexander the Great]] destroyed the [[Persian Empire]], and other imperial buildings in the architecture of the [[Maurya Empire]].<ref>Boardman, 14–20</ref>  

The much smaller [[Mathura lion capital]] of the 1st century CE shows clear influence.  They can be seen in [[relief]] decoration around Buddhist [[stupa]]s in [[Gandhara]] in the 2nd or 3rd century CE,<ref>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1899-0609-12 British Museum Stupa drum framing element containing a Persepolitan column]</ref> and Persian columns decorate the [[Karla Caves]]<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20161027120728/http://www.panoramio.com/photo/81534717 Photo of Karla Caves, Pune, Maharashtra]</ref> and [[Nasik Caves]].<ref>[https://www.flickr.com/photos/anandajoti/33156264563/ 010 Cave 3, Exterior]</ref> The style did not develop in Persia itself, but elements continued to appear under later dynasties before the arrival of Islam.<ref name="Boardman 15"/>